Miscellaneous

Artist(s)

Voice actor

The Knightframe is the basic infantry of the Foehn Revolt. They are more expensive than the otherfactions'counterparts, but makes up for it with higher health and damage, as well as being uncrushable (except by the heaviest of vehicles) and can hit air targets as well (though they cannot do so while garrisoned).

Contents

Official description

One thing is clear, and it is a vital piece of information that gives Foehn's enemies a huge advantage - the Foehn Revolt is limited in numbers. The amount of its troops, technicians and scientists is limited and thus every single life counts. This is why even the most basic of Foehn soldiers who fight on the frontlines have been given an advanced set of equipment that is supposed to increase their durability and survivability on the battlefield.

The Knightframe is the foundation of a Foehn infantry battalion. These troops walk through the battlefield in a mechanical frame which allows them to walk faster but will also help the men inside endure the harshest situations. A very heavy machine gun has been mounted into each of these powersuits, a weapon effective both against ground and flying targets, but mostly against troops and the lightly armoured units. Unique design of the powersuit allows the Knightframe to enter garrisonable buildings if need be as it'll fold into a more compact version as they do so. They will however not be able to shoot at aircraft from a building.[1]

Overview

The Knightframe is a considerably powerful, albeit expensive, tier one basic infantry. With a powerful weapon with decent range and splash damage, Knightframes can fight large groups of enemy infantry where others would have trouble, especially against other tier one infantry who lack the relative range and power of the VHMG. Not only does his weapon let him clear through swathes of infantry, but his weapon can fire flechette rounds against aerial foes, letting them deal with threats in a matter similar to Flak Troopers.

Along with his powerful offensive abilities, the Knightframe is also considerably tougher than his peers. Boasting plate armor and almost double the health of the Initiate, this unit can withstand most battles against other infantry with less overall damage and fewer losses. Because of their armor, Knightframes cannot be crushed by normal vehicles, and are immune to dog and Spook attacks, preventing sudden losses among the Foehn infantry battalions. Not only is their armor powerful, but it's also flexible, allowing them to garrison buildings at an equal rate that other infantry can, extending their survivability and their fire coverage (but not their actual range). This is especially potent when combined with Lancers for full anti-ground defense. Unfortunately, the Knightframe loses his ability to target air units while garrisoned inside buildings, so additional ungarrisoned knights are advised when dealing with aerial threats.

Inside Jackals, a Knightframe can extend the speeder's infantry killing power, and give it the ability to rapidly respond to aerial threats. With a high passenger survivability rate, the Knightframe may survive if their frail transport goes down.

While this unit is powerful, he still has several weaknesses that his foes can exploit. The most major component is his price tag ($400), which means that early on, he can't be massed as quickly as other basic infantry, and will usually be outnumbered throughout the fight. Along with that, he inherits weaknesses from his mechanical design, which include a vulnerability to magnetic weapons and EMP, so caution is advised when dealing with China or PsiCorps. He takes up two slots in all transports, which make it difficult to transport him, most notably in Warturtles and similar vessels. While he has good range, he is still vulnerable to specialized anti-infantry units like Viruses, Desolators, Snipers and Huntresses, who out range and overpower him relatively quickly.

Appearances

In the campaign Knightframe prototypes appears as Heavy Troopers which bears the Chinese color scheme and are armed with heavy machine guns that cannot fire on aircraft and deal no splash damage.

Act Two

Heavy Troopers first appear at the end of Cyberanatomy, paradropping in to pursue Krukov and Reznov in vain after the two have already evacuated in a Kamaz truck.

Slower rate of fire in contrast to its counterparts of other factions.

Behind the scenes

In version 3.3.2, the Heavy Trooper can be trained if the player captured one by a Drakuv Prison Vehicle and sent them to a Field Bureau. They shared the cameo of the Knightframe, right down to the name.

The base SHP sprite of the Knightframe is made public by the author, ImP_RuLz, to the Command & Conquer modding community, meaning that other aspiring modders can utilize it for their own mods. One example in other mods include Twisted Insurrection (GDI Railgun Commando). The link can be found here.